Barney's Blog

The Future of the PC OEM Market

Microsoft's announcement of new Surface Tablet PCs is a seismic shift in a PC OEM market whose plates have been already shifting as of late. IBM, who created the IBM-compatible PC market (remember that term?) sold out to Lenovo eight years ago. And today we are left with a tiny number of PC and laptop players. If Microsoft muscles out one or two more, it may be a survivable offense.

Now it looks like we are looking at a bifurcated market. Microsoft will play a partial role, which is odd. Then again, Microsoft is known for picking and choosing markets.

The further area of bifurcation is that the server market is left alone. Why on earth would Microsoft get into this side? Then again, you never know.

What would a Microsoft server look like? You tell me at dbarney@redmondmag.com.